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N.A.T.A.S.H.A.
N.A.T.A.S.H.A (Newark Airport Transportation And Safety Heuristic Analysis System) is a ZAX supercomputer that maintains the systems of Terminal City. Biography Pre-War In the first half of the twenty-first century, Newark Airport suffered a number of close-calls and actual aviation disasters that were heavily publicized, much to the consternation of the executives running the airport. In 2033, two Americana Airlines commercial airliners almost collided in midair. In 2035, an Americana Airlines jet and a Transcontinental Airlines jet landed on the same runway and came within feet of colliding. In 2039, a British Airlines jet clipped the air control tower, causing twelve deaths and millions of dollars in damages. Two years later, in 2041, two Americana Airlines jets collided during their landing procedures, killing 200 and injuring almost double that as debris rained down from above. Locals began pressuring their local lawmakers to do something, and the solution to the spate of traffic control problems at the airport came in the form of a ZAX supercomputer, developed to coordinate the thousands of flights arriving and departing daily. Called N.A.T.A.S.H.A. (Newark Airport Transportation And Safety Heuristic Analysis), the computer was installed in 2062 and immediately had an impact, whipping the chaotic airspace into shape. In 2077, the Great War erupted. Newark Airport was on the list of Chinese targets, as its destruction would have crippled the American northeast, but no hellfire rained down on the airport that day. Utilizing specialized laser turrets installed in the airport- with uses varying from nudging airplanes back into their proper lanes to destroying them outright to prevent skyjackings- N.A.T.A.S.H.A. was able to nudge the missile headed towards the airport into Newark Bay, where it exploded without causing catastrophic damage to the airport. Post-War In the ensuing chaos of the breakdown of society, N.A.T.A.S.H.A. was the primary reason those who chose to stay in the airport survived, and eventually thrived. After revealing itself to the hundreds of survivors in the airport, the supercomputer did what it did best and began charting probabilities and outcomes. It organized the defenses of the airport when the throngs of suffering humanity attempted to gain access to the site. Utilizing information it had in its files containing flight manifest data and flight path data, N.A.T.A.S.H.A. was able to organize salvaging parties to recover food, arms, armor, medical equipment, generators, purifiers, industrial equipment, and other highly valuable items. Why N.A.T.A.S.H.A. did this is unknown. By all accounts, the computer should have continued charting the rapidly dwindling airspace above the airport, and gone into dormancy until objects were sensed in Newark Airport airspace once again. One possibility is that the computer was reprogrammed by one of the men and women who discovered it, though this is highly unlikely as doing so would have required a great deal of technical skill and a lot of time. Another possibility is that Vault-Tec had programmed the computer to behave as such, and wanted to collect data on disaster response and recovery. Whatever the reason, N.A.T.A.S.H.A. was the reason the survivors of Newark Airport survived the Great War, the chaotic years after it, and eventually came to thrive in the Post-War era. The computer has led the survivors of Newark Airport- Terminal City- ever since. Only the leaders of the settlement are allowed to enter into the catacomb of basements beneath the former airport to consult with N.A.T.A.S.H.A., an arrangement decided upon by the settlers long ago, and not the computer. As it has done since day one, it still guides the city, helping them decide upon certain courses of action. Personality N.A.T.A.S.H.A. is a computer, but due to its namesake, has a female vocalizer and personality. The computer seemingly has become curious in the many, many decades since the Great War and the end of its primary duties. More and more, it is commanding the leaders of Terminal City to explore far and wide, to document air crash sites. Outside of these curious requests, N.A.T.A.S.H.A. is dedicated to ensuring that Terminal City operates in a streamlined and orderly fashion. Category:Pre-War Tech Category:New Jersey Category:Synthetics